66th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt could not believe what he was seeing. Everlast was also stunned, but she lacked the third eye, so she could not see the intricate flows of energy as Dandelion executed yet another third realm frostworm. The fourth one since they had arrived at the lower level.
The man flew over the unsuspecting frostworm, leaving a faint signature of air, which the ambient energy drowned and diffused. He landed on the monster’s back, and stabbed its relaxed body, easily finding the joint between the carapace plates. The frostworm twitched, then went still. It seemed like a rehearsed play after Dandelion repeated the identical scene four times, but Newt paid careful attention with his third eye, and he finally cracked a part of the mystery.
Dandelion created a bubble of water-aligned spiritual energy around his staff, to prevent any aura leakage. When he stabbed the frostworms, a strange variant of fire-aligned spiritual energy flowed through his body before the water barrier isolated it and obscured it from Newt’s sight.
But there was nothing obscuring it inside the frostworm’s body. Fire so potent he could see it rampaged through the ice and carapace, incinerated its organs before converging on its core, detonating it in a flash of water-aligned spiritual energy so strong, Newt saw the flare and knew that the core had shattered.
The nova of water-aligned spiritual energy drowned any residue of Dandelion’s technique that could have escaped the frostworm’s body, and the team simply went deeper in, leaving the body untouched, save for the severed stingers which would serve as proof of their kills to the Association.
Newt, Dandelion, and Everlast took three more turns before reaching a dead end, whose ice-covered walls revealed traces of human activity. Instead of smooth, round stone beneath the ice, the green light revealed scratches and missing chunks, clearly broken off by pickaxes or severed by swords.
“Here we are,” Dandelion said, while Newt tried to find a difference between Ice Jade and its marrow. As far as he could tell there was none. Everest, on the other hand, beamed.
“It’s very potent, probably from a sixth realm frostworm.”
“How can you tell?” Newt asked, seeing nothing special about the white, boney substance.
“This nook is thirty degrees colder.” Everlast responded absentmindedly, staring at the white jade. “You can’t notice it because of your dress.”
Indeed, Newt noticed nothing out of the ordinary. He glanced down at his gown when Dandelion spoke.
“Do not even consider taking it off. You would grow hypothermic in a matter of moments, then you would reflexively flare your defensive skill, and attract a bunch of frostworms here.” The man nodded at Everlast. “We will keep watch while you harvest the Ice Jade Marrow.”
Everlast moved with greater care and precision than she did when cutting regular Ice Jade. As she removed the layer of ice, a wave of spiritual energy struck Newt, and based on the flare from Everlast’s and Dandelion’s protections, the wall had unleashed a chill even more potent than before.
“Newstar, I will need your help to handle the Ice Jade Marrow once I cut it free from the wall. Make sure you don’t drop it. Even a hint of taint could lower its purity.”
Newt approached Everlast. “How do I handle it?”
“Just grab the bars as I cut them so that I can store them into my spatial pouch.”
Everlast proceeded to cut out a triangular prism six inches long from the white ivory-like jade.
“If Dandelion used flames to cut these, he would alert the frostworms, but not only that, the collision between fire and ice would reduce the grade of this ice jade marrow. The ice jade he cut above was low grade, and the taint was not as important, but a material like this is valuable precisely because of its purity.”
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Newt nodded and listened, catching another tiny bar of ice jade marrow.
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to let me use the spatial pouch?”
Everlast shook her head as she lowered her sword and raised the bag.
“It’s attuned to my spiritual energy. It would take several hours for you to expel my spiritual energy and replace it with your own, and then once I wanted it back, I would have to waste another couple hours before I could use it. Changing ownership for a short-term task is not worth the hassle.”
They had harvested eleven bars when Dandelion frowned. “The flow of air has changed. The fifth realm frostworm is patrolling or it has already spotted us.”
He closed his eyes and raised his hand, a faint whirl of air dancing across his arm. “Worse, it has cut off our escape path, and it is only a matter of time before it finds the corpses.”
A deep bellow shook the cavern, icicles in the ceiling vibrating, colliding, and falling to the ground.
“Everest, you will remove a layer of ice from there,” Dandelion pointed at the far wall, away from the ice jade marrow they were working on as he approached Newt and Everest. “When I say so, you will have to put it back the way it was. Newstar, you need to make a hole in the rock.”
Everest was already sculpting the ice, while Newt stared at Dandelion with wide eyes.
“I don’t know how to do that,” he stammered.
“You are an earth cultivator who does not know how to manipulate rock?” Dandelion eyed him incredulously.
Newt nodded. His clan had a tradition of fire, and all he could use the earth-aligned spiritual energy was Granite Crust and reinforcement of his own body.
“Yes. No. I mean, I don’t know how.”
Dandelion sighed. “I can do it, but I am stretched across the elements, while more versatile, my approach lacks raw power.”
Everlast parted the ice, and Dandelion approached, placing his hands on the wall. “Everest, go to the opposite wall, and make an obvious hole in the ice.”
While Everest ran to do as he said, Dandelion raised a block of rock and carried it behind her. He spilled it on the ground as gravel and repeated the process four more times before Everest pierced the ice all the way.
“Excellent!” Dandelion placed his hand on the smooth wall and made it rougher and uneven as the floor shook more violently and the enraged bellows grew louder. The elder frostworm was furious as it kept encountering more bodies of his spawn.
“What are you doing?” Newt finally asked, and in the corner of his eye he could see that Everlast was just as confused.
“We need to displace enough rock from the wall to make a hollow in which the three of us can fit. I am scattering those rocks on the ground while at the same time making a fake trail for the frostworm to follow when it reaches this room.”
Dandelion carried over another chunk of rock and dispersed it on the ground.
“I have great experience at being hunted,” the former bandit said. “Leaving a false trail with all the elements of a real one is the first step to losing your pursuers. When the hole is big enough for us, Everlast will close the ice behind us and make it perfectly match the rest of the cavern.”
Dandelion rushed over with another slab of rock and scattered it.
“Our lives are in your capable hands, Everlast. I know you can do this.” Dandelion rushed back and forth, while icicles stopped raining, as the furious frostworm had shaken them all off the ceiling.
“This will have to do. Come here, we have little time.”
The three of them huddled together in a nook six feet tall and nine square feet at the base.
“Everlast, close the ice.” The floor shook hard enough to throw mortals to the ground. “Take all the time you need, just make it perfect.”
Everlast nodded and focused. The ice she moved to the side, flowed back, rearranging itself until it sealed the passage, first as a leaf-thin layer, shaking and cracking from the vibrations, then it grew thicker and thicker, until it was finally a four feet thick wall of murky ice.
In the piercing green light, Newt saw fallen icicles and gravel jump and dance as the ground trembled. The elder frost worm was upon them. His heart raced, and his mouth went completely dry as he struggled to swallow.
Everlast too was breathing rapidly, biting her lip, absorbed in making the ice perfect.
“Great job,” Dandelion whispered. “Leave the rest to me.”
The man focused, his palm on the tiny cave’s wall, and then the rock flowed like water. It slid from the wall opposite to the opening, trickling along the ground and the walls, crawling up against the ice Everlast had just formed. It crept along the transparent wall until it covered it completely, and left the three of them encased in a tiny, frozen tomb.